When are we not diabetic?
I recently heard an author (Sorry I forget the names of both the author and title) who wrote a book about chronic illness. The premise of the book is that those of us who have chronic illness need to readjust our thinking. Instead of thinking that we have our disease all the time, we need to celebrate that we do not have it the majority of the time, on the face of it that seemed odd, but stick with me here.
The idea is that when we are not actively dealing with the disease (taking shots, testing, adjusting eating) then we do not have the disease. The author posited that that this was true for all chronic diseases. I called the program and disagreed that I was not diabetic during a good deal of my life. After my second point I was ushered off the program.
So here is the question are we ever not diabetic? I have three chronic diseases, so maybe it is just me but I feel that I always have a chronic disease. I do not recall (since I was 17) not being diabetic. The author said that most likely In between meals or injections or whatever, I allow myself to not be diabetic.
I was obviously upset, this was a national radio program on Doctor Radio on XM and I pulled over and called this show even as I grew more upset. When I got on, I was clearly the minority opinion. Many people were calling in saying this notion of not being a disease was freeing. I cannot disagree with their experience, I men if it frees them I am good with that. But for me it continued to be frustrating and made no sense.
I opened my two questions by asking if I am always male? I mean I do not think about being male much of the time. It is just what I am. I never think about this much in my mind, but I am male. I am when I sleep, eat, drive and even when I am diabetic. Her response was that I am not male unless I am actively thinking about it. That seems to be the issue to me. I mean pop psychologists tell us that men are from Mars and women from Venus. Doesn’t that imply a basic difference?
My second point was that any time I am not a diabetic I pay dearly for those thoughts. Suppose I go to the local McDonalds, declare I am not diabetic and get two quarter pounders and two fries. But I do not do that because I am diabetic. Because I am diabetic I cannot simply go where I want. The doctor said that when ordering I am diabetic, but then immediately after I am no longer a diabetic. I said that is not true. Because if I suddenly was not a diabetic, I have no doubt that I would rush the counter and get an ice cream whatever, filled with Reese peanut butter cups. That was about when I got cut off by the host. I think the host was upset with my questions.
I mean I was going to ask how to get rid of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). I mean I want rid of this one, which is something I feel with every step and each little movement. But I did not get to ask that question, I was gone. Likely with some talk about mean spirited callers.
So what do you think? Are you always diabetic? Now I get it. What she was really saying is that we are primarily people first and husband, male, diabetic or RA second. I get that I don’t think of my disease every moment of every day. I think of it often but not every moment, I am really interested, when are you diabetic? I say I am all the time.
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